


Up Top

by Chrononautical



Category: due South
Genre: Car Chases, Duty, Gen, and fluff's to blame, shot through the hat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 10:56:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8325118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrononautical/pseuds/Chrononautical
Summary: Elaine gets shot in the hat. Fraser's very nice about it. A homage to my favorite scene in due South.





	

Walking a beat in the one-nine was anything but boring. As close to Wrigley as she was, the collars were mostly drunk and disorderly tickets, muggings, and the occasional car jacking. Never dull, but it was a little more predictable than life at the two-seven. So when the dynamic duo raced past her on a motorcycle, Ray driving and Fraser standing on the passenger seat, swinging a lasso and trying to rope gun wielding criminals shooting at him from the back of a pickup truck, it took her a second before she hopped into her squad car, flipped on the siren, and joined the chase. 

Fraser had two of the gunmen tied up in the back of the truck just as it crashed into the half open doors of a warehouse. The driver, passenger, and third gunman took off running, stomping over the steaming hood of their pickup and through the huge steel doors just as she exited her vehicle and took aim. Ray gave her a cheeky wink. 

“Hey Elaine, thanks for coming! Long time no see.” 

Leaving her partner to finish securing the tied up henchmen, she followed Ray and Fraser into the building. “Well I was thinking we should catch up,” she said as glibly as she could. The gunmen had semiautomatics and she wasn’t wearing a vest. 

Still, she was a cop, not a coward. Fraser raced forward between the towering crates and Ray went left along the inside wall, so Elaine went right. Her heart hammered with every step, but her gun was steady and when the driver leapt down from the top of one of the big shipping containers, knocking it from her hand, she brought her fist up to knock him in the jaw. Within seconds he was cuffed, and she was just able to push him out of the way when the passenger popped up at the end of the aisle and started shooting. He stayed down, curling into a fetal position as though that would help. Elaine managed to wing the shooter before she felt a bullet hit, and she went down too. 

Abruptly the sound of gunfire stopped. Looking up, Elaine saw Fraser standing over her with a worried expression. “Are you injured Officer Besbriss?”

Elaine stared at him for a long moment. It was foolish to be so shaken, but she thought he might understand. He was, after all, the most understanding man on the planet. “He shot my hat, Fraser.” 

A grin broke over his face like the sunrise. Elaine noticed that his own hat was pristine and at a perfect ninety degree angle to his square jaw. “Most unfortunate,” he said politely. 

“I’ve only had it for three months,” she said. Her heart was so loud she was sure he could hear it with those Mountie bat ears of his. 

“We’ll have to procure a replacement immediately,” he agreed. His grin softened to a kind smile as he offered her a hand up. She took it, a little proud that her own hand wasn’t shaking. “Thank you for your assistance. Ray and I would have been severely outnumbered without you and your partner.” 

Feeling her cheeks flush a little, Elaine said, “That’s the job, right? You wear the uniform, you answer the call.” 

“Ah. Interestingly I don’t believe Ray had an opportunity to call for backup, as both of his hands were occupied driving the commandeered motorcycle and we did not have access to a police radio. We were lucky you spotted us.” 

“You were kind of hard to miss.” Breathing was more natural as she teased Fraser. She thought she just might Mirandize her perp, since Kowalski looked like he had his hands full with the other two. There was no excuse for a sloppy bust, and he did have a reputation.

“You’re laughing,” the blonde detective accused, as if he could tell she was thinking about him. “Is Fraser telling you that this gets easier? Let me tell you, that is a filthy lie and Fraser is a Canadian sneak. Getting shot at does not ever gets any easier.” 

Fraser’s eyes twinkled a little. “Indeed it does not. I’ve been shot in the hat myself. I know full well how disorienting the situation can be.” 

“Hats? Is this case about hats now? I thought it was about meat smuggling and tax evasion.”

“Indeed it is, Ray, but I was just telling Officer Besbriss –“ 

“Can it with the haberdashery then, Fraser, I’m having a hard enough time trying to figure out where the rodeo clowns fit in.” 

“Ah. I believe you mean millinery, Ray. While they might traffic in men’s clothing in the American parlance, a haberdasher tends to sell sewing notions, buttons, ribbons, and the like, while a milliner –“ 

“Fraser, did I ask for a history of garment sales? Do I look like the sort of guy who cares about garment sales?”

“Well, Ray-“ 

“No, Fraser. The answer is no, I do not. I do not care about milliners or haberdashers or buccaneers or –“

“Actually, the term buccaneer originally referred to meat smugglers in the French Caribbean, so it would be appropriate to use in this case.”

“Fraser!”

“Understood, Ray.” 

“Anyway, Elaine, don’t worry about it. First real firefight is always tough,” Ray said. She wondered how he knew it was her first time discharging her weapon. Probably just by the numbers. Most officers went years at a time without firing at anything but a paper target. “It doesn’t get easier, but you’re smart and you did everything right. As long as you keep thinking with your head, you’ll be fine. Heck, you’re already a better cop than me. I never even called for backup.” 

Elaine laughed. “It’s what’s up here that matters most,” she agreed, tapping the side of Fraser’s Stetson. 

Ray rolled his eyes and shoved his apprehended criminals toward the wreck of the truck where Elaine’s partner and other black and whites were gathering. “C’mon,” he said. “I’ll steal you a new hat from one of the doughnut eaters.” 

For some reason that struck her as even funnier. Taking her own perp by the cuffs and pushing him before her, she laughed and laughed.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [In the Line of Duty](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8727832) by [JackyMedan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackyMedan/pseuds/JackyMedan)




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